THE West Coast Eagles lost the NAB Cup Grand Final last night to the Adelaide Crows, and in so doing added another injury to their already depleted forward line with Mark Nicoski going down with a hamstring injury in the first quarter.
Nicoski, 28, went down after pursuing Adelaide’s Brent Reilly in the loss to the Crows at AAMI Stadium. Moments earlier Nickoski had scored on a booming supergoal.
West Coast coach John Worsfold later confirmed that Nicoski will miss up to three weeks after tearing his left hamstring.
With star forward Mark LeCras already out for the season with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and Josh Kennedy limited throughout the pre-season with plantar fasciitis, Worsfold will have to find new attacking options if his squad is to meet their expectations for this season.
One option put forward by The West Australian suggests “a forward line with small forwards such as Hill, Ashton Hams, Gerrick Weedon and Ryan Neates ” but it will remain to be seen if this will be anything other than a stop-gap measure for the Eagles while they await the return of Kennedy and Nicoski.
The Eagles will begin their 2012 Premiership season campaign on Sunday 1 April at 1:10pm when they face the Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne.
UPDATE ( 19 Mar 2012 @ 8:57pm): The West Coast Eagles announced that scans on Nicoski today revealed that his hamstring injury is more serious than hoped. What was originally hoped to be a three week recovery period will now be unknown until surgery has been performed on Wednesday.
The West Australian has suggested that the “extent of the injury which is set to sideline the 28-year-old for eight to 12 weeks“.
More to follow.
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